Zoo Jeans: The Latest Philanthropic Fashion

By Kristen Peuvion on July 30, 2014

Time and time again, the fashion industry pairs up with charitable associations and creates clothes for a cause.

Some popular ones in recent years have been Gap’s Red line of t-shirts which was created with the help of U2’s Bono to help raise awareness about HIV/AIDS in Africa and also the yellow rubber Livestrong bracelets that plagued the arms of nearly everyone in the early 2000s and more importantly raised money to support victims and survivors of cancer.

People in the fashion industry love to make clothes that support a good cause and it seems Zoo Jeans is the latest endeavor.

image via livestrong.org

Zoo Jeans aren’t created by fashion’s top designers though, and instead of having a famous celebrity spokesmodel or creator, these jeans are actually created (in part) by zoo animals–more specifically lions, tigers and bears.

In Kamine Zoo in Hitachi City, Japan, zookeepers are wrapping raw denim around the toys that these animals play with. Once the toys are wrapped, they are placed in the animals’ cages for them to claw, bite, tear and rip the denim as much as they please. The destroyed denim is then used to create jeans.

The idea behind this endeavor is that the profit generated from these jeans will go to these animals’ habitat in the zoo. It is hoped that the money will greatly improve their habitat and make living conditions much better.

Not only that, but part of the profits also go to the World Wildlife Fund, which is an organization that promotes the preservation of the environment as well as research and preservation regarding the nature and wildlife of the entire world.

Aside from the funds generated, the denim is also supposed to be beneficial to the teeth of the lions, tigers and bears because chewing the tough material keeps them strong.

The company behind this innovative idea is I&S BBDO which is based in Japan. An advertising executive from the company came up with this idea because he wanted to give something back to the zoo he went to when he was child according to Nobutaka Namae, the Kamine Zoo director.

The three designs are respectively called L1 and L2 for the jeans destroyed by the lions, T1 for those destroyed by the tiger and finally B1 for those destroyed by the bear. Since the idea surfaced, a lot of internet buzz has begun in regards to this philanthropic fashion innovation.

image via zoo-jeans.com

Not everyone’s responses have been positive, though. With many philanthropic fashions, it seems the novelty wears off and these trends go just as quickly as they came.

Gap no longer produces their famous (Red) t-shirts and you won’t find a Livestrong band on practically anyone’s arm these days which leaves many wondering if Zoo Jeans will follow in their footsteps.

Also being criticized is the look of the jeans themselves. The draw of them is that they are distressed which is a very popular trend in denim right now. Everyone wants distressed jeans, but are the ones created by these zoo animals as good as the rest?

Mithun Ramanandi, who is a men’s denim buyer for department store Selfridges, doubts these jeans will last in the fashion industry.

“The rips are too sporadic,” Ramanandi said. “Men want them on the thigh, the knee, the back pocket. Rips on the calf, as they are here, don’t look natural.”

So it seems that the jeans are getting backlash for the same reason they are getting praise: their designer.

The animals obviously are not capable of creating holes, frays and scratches in a calculated way. The denim is simply distressed by them playing with their toys and the result is random and chaotic distressed jeans, which is what Ramanandi argues is their downfall.

However, when I&S BBDO paired up with Yahoo! Auction to start selling the animals’ creations, profits soared. The jeans have gone for over $1400 (152,000 yen) US dollars which is great news for both the Kamine Zoo and the World Wildlife Fund.

Who would have thought that a pair of jeans designed by zoo animals would bring in that much money for a good cause?

Due to the success of things like Zoo Jeans, Red and Livestrong, it seems to be a safe bet that the fashion industry will continue pairing up with organizations with a good cause.

Who knows what will come next in the form of philanthropic fashion!

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